Electronic communication has further enabled people to communicate one with another without the need for both parties to be immediately present. For example, email enables a party to deliver a message, without the need for the other party to actively monitor his email account. A sent message is received electronically, and resides within the computer system until the receiving party is ready to view the message. Similarly, a party may deliver a voice mail message to a telephone answering machine, without the need for the other party to monitor the telephone call. The voice mail message resides on the answering machine until the receiving party is ready to listen to the message.
While communication of this type has allowed people greater freedom in deciding when they will either deliver or respond to a message, such communication is only applicable to communication in a single direction; that is to say, messages which are created by a delivering party are sent to and received by a receiving party. In other words, the communication tends to be unilateral There is no provision for bilateral communication in which the receiving party responds to the message received, and the response is delivered to the original delivering party in an automated fashion.
For example, a first party needs information from a second party, such as a health service provider seeking a verification of benefits from an insurance company. Before the insurance company can verify benefits, it needs certain information from the service provider, such as the name of the patient and the type of service to be rendered. The service provider could leave a voice mail for the insurance company, in which the needed information is given. However, this would require that the insurance company take the time and bear the expense to place a return telephone call to the service provider and leave the verification with either a live party or in a separate voice mail. Unfortunately, many parties, such as insurance companies, prefer to not operate in such a manner.
Typically, an employee of the service provider, such as a nurse, must wait on hold in a telephone queue until the insurance company is ready to answer the telephone call, at which time the service provider can deliver the needed information and receive the desired verification in response. The actual communication may be very brief in comparison to the length of time spent on hold, and the time spent on hold may represent lost productivity and additional expense to the service provider.
What is needed, therefore, is a communication system in which an automated interaction between parties is possible, such that the parties can deliver and respond to messages without independently contacting one another in a unilateral and disassociated manner.